国立アメリカ歴史博物館さんのインスタグラム写真 - (国立アメリカ歴史博物館Instagram)「Dressmaker Elizabeth Keckley is often remembered for her work creating elaborate gowns for prominent figures in Washington, DC—including First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln—but Keckley's work also included pieces that embodied everyday family life in D.C.'s Black community, like this christening gown. Keckley made this infant's christening gown for her goddaughter Alberta Elizabeth Lewis-Savoy in 1866. Born into slavery, Keckley used her earnings as a dressmaker to purchase her freedom and that of her son. After moving to Washington, D.C., Keckley opened a dressmaking shop. In 1861, she secured a coveted position as personal dressmaker to Mary Todd Lincoln. As the war raged on, she became one of the First Lady's closest confidantes. When Keckley first arrived in Washington, DC, in the 1860s, she boarded with a local Black couple, Mr. and Mrs. Walker Lewis, whom she credited as "friends in the truest sense of the word." She and the Lewis family faced many of the chaotic events of the Civil War together. When Keckley first heard the news that President Abraham Lincoln had been shot, she recalled waking the couple to tell them the news, and they accompanied her as she walked to the White House through the city's chaotic streets. Keckley became the godmother for the couple's daughter, Alberta, in 1866. Later, after Mrs. Lewis's death, she helped raise Alberta and her sister. During her lifetime, Keckley worked to ensure that her success as a businesswoman would help others. "If the white people can give festivals to raise funds for the relief of suffering soldiers, why should not the well-to-do colored people go to work to do something for the benefit of suffering blacks?" she wrote in her memoir. In 1862, Keckley helped found the Contraband Relief Association to assist formerly enslaved people as they arrived in the nation's capital. ("Contraband" was the term used during the Civil War for formerly enslaved people who escaped north). #History #AmericanHistory #BlackHistory #AfricanAmericanHistory #WomensHistory #BlackHistoryMonth#SmithsonianBHM #BusinessHistory #CivilWar #Philanthropy #Textiles #BlackFamilyHistory #SmithsonianBHM #BecauseOfHerStory」2月27日 1時24分